Geospatial data use is now a part of routine operations for Oregon government agencies. As a result, agencies receive many requests from organizations throughout the state for geospatial data, particularly orthoimagery and aerial photography. User needs typically go beyond simple viewing to include such features as clipping data for an area of interest, compressing these data, and shipping them to the user and seamlessly integrating with other geospatial internet applications. A Web-based Internet portal application providing access to and distribution of public domain, statewide orthoimagery would meet the
majority of users’ needs.

The Oregon Department of Administrative Services' Geospatial Enterprise Office and Oregon State University collaborated to develop an orthoimagery portal application to allow for the distribution of digital aerial imagery for the state of Oregon, and to integrate this Imagery Portal, a navigatOR portal for Framework data, into the Oregon Explorer project. The near-term objective of this project was to develop an imagery portal that serves the Framework 2005 half-meter orthoimagery acquired through the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) and other aerial imagery datasets.

Acquisition of the 2005 half-meter orthoimagery was coordinated by the Oregon Orthoimagery Framework Group (OrthoFIT), which includes federal, state and local governmental agencies as well as private companies. Ortho FIT formed a consortium, through a memorandum of understanding (MOU), to build upon image acquisition by the USDA's Farm Services Agency NAIP procured through the Bureau of Land Management. The Oregon Geographic Information Council and many other partners signed this MOU. 

The Imagery Portal Project included two phases: Phase 1 included project scoping, an assessment of existing software solutions meeting the required and desired functionality, and subsequent procurement of a software solution to meet this need; and Phase 2 implementation of the software solution that would be accessible via the Oregon Explorer. Please see the Phase 1 Project Completion Report (PDF) for more information.

Through a competitive procurement process, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging (formerly ER Mapper) was selected to develop a software application to meet the needs of users. ER Mapper had been pioneering advances in the processing, storage and distribution of geospatial imagery since its inception in 1989. As part of Leica Geosystem Geospatial Imaging, it continues to develop both desktop and enterprise geospatial imagery applications.

The Web site was made public in October of 2007.